WSJ brings US edition to London

Dow Jones and Co. will start distributing the US edition of its Wall Street Journal in London on April 16. WSJ Europe will maintain its presence in London.

Issues of the US WSJ will be available five days a week in London., distributed mainly via newsstand. The 250 distribution sites in the central City district, the West End, Canary Wharf and Heathrow and London City airports were chosen for their heavy foot traffic.

“People say to us they would love to receive the US edition of the Wall Street Journal because either they lived and worked in the US before or are expatriate Americans living and working in London and would like to get the paper they grew up with,” said Tim Lafferty, director of product sales and marketing for the Dow Jones Consumer Media Group in Europe.

“It's also a great time, news-wise, to start doing it,” Lafferty added, “because of the US elections coming up in November. There's a lot of interest in that from both the press and potential readers.”

Lafferty noted that, while the US is traditionally a subscription-focused market, newsstands drive UK paper sales. Marketing efforts will focus heavily on point-of-sale promotions such as posters, stickers and giveaways.

Direct mail and e-mail will drive subscription sales. Essentials, a daily e-newsletter, has shown great conversion numbers for the European edition of WSJ. The same program will be implemented to sell the US edition.

Expatriate Americans are a target audience for the US edition, but Lafferty said marketing will also focus on Londoners who work for US companies. Financial News, Barron's and WSJ Europe, all corporate siblings to WSJ US, should prove good list sources. Members of American clubs, such as BritishAmerican Business Inc., will also be targeted.

The cover price of the US edition will start at £2.50 on newsstands. Year-long individual and corporate subscriptions will cost about £500. The Financial Times, a competitor in the premium news market, sells for about £1.50 on the newsstand.

“Doing international direct mail outside the US is quite expensive,” Lafferty said of the price. “It's going to be a premium product at a higher price, which also means challenges, but we are offering discounts and various offers. It's not anywhere near prohibitively priced and is actually a good value for a full-sized paper on the newsstands before seven in the morning.”

US editions will mimic the shape and size of US papers — which are bigger and bulkier than most UK journals.

Because distribution of the US edition is being limited to select city postal codes, only 3,500 copies will be printed. WSJ Europe distributes 220,000 editions regionally.